經文: 「我們愛，因為上帝先愛我們。」（約翰壹書四：19）

若沒有太陽，這世上就沒有光。若沒有耶穌的愛在心中，我們就不可能有上帝真正的愛。只有與上帝無限大愛接觸，我們才可能對上帝產生湧流不止的愛。這是千真萬確的真理，若不是上帝先愛我們，我們怎麼會愛祂？我們愛祂乃是回應報答上帝對我們的愛。
有人觀看上帝大自然的傑作，或是研讀聖經的話語，並沒有什麼感動或收護。惟有上帝的靈感動人心，人心中上帝的愛才會被激發挑旺。而且上帝的愛多麼奇妙偉大，在我們還作罪人頂撞祂的時候，祂的愛子就願為我們死，好贏得我們的心，若不是祂這樣犧牲，用生命寶血做代價，可能喚不起我們一丁點上帝的愛。
這愛一旦萌芽，還需要繼續照顧澆灌，方能成長，因為人心不是一塊沃土，這棵「愛」的樹苗需要細心呵護，才能持續長大，而且需要上帝愛的滋潤，這朵嬌嫩的「愛之花」才不致枯萎。這愛是從天上來，還需餵以天糧嗎哪，否則無法在曠野存活。人是感情的動物，愛心需要用愛與溫情來餵養，這印證了我們愛上帝，是因為上帝先愛我們。

Morning, June 11
Scripture: “We love him because he first loved us.”(1 John 4:19)

There is no light in the planet but that which proceedeth from the sun; and there is no true love to Jesus in the heart but that which cometh from the Lord Jesus himself. From this overflowing fountain of the infinite love of God, all our love to God must spring. This must ever be a great and certain truth, that we love him for no other reason than because he first loved us. Our love to him is the fair offspring of his love to us. Cold admiration, when studying the works of God, anyone may have, but the warmth of love can only be kindled in the heart by God's Spirit. How great the wonder that such as we should ever have been brought to love Jesus at all! How marvellous that when we had rebelled against him, he should, by a display of such amazing love, seek to draw us back. No! never should we have had a grain of love towards God unless it had been sown in us by the sweet seed of his love to us. Love, then, has for its parent the love of God shed abroad in the heart: but after it is thus divinely born, it must be divinely nourished. Love is an exotic; it is not a plant which will flourish naturally in human soil, it must be watered from above. Love to Jesus is a flower of a delicate nature, and if it received no nourishment but that which could be drawn from the rock of our hearts it would soon wither. As love comes from heaven, so it must feed on heavenly bread. It cannot exist in the wilderness unless it be fed by manna from on high. Love must feed on love. The very soul and life of our love to God is his love to us.

“I love thee, Lord, but with no love of mine,
For I have none to give;
I love thee, Lord; but all the love is thine,
For by thy love I live.
I am as nothing, and rejoice to be
Emptied, and lost, and swallowed up in thee.”